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The motive for this research originated from the Heijmans Risk management year plan of 2016, which recommended to investigate the usefulness or necessity for developing a risk database for Heijmans infra. According to PROM the knowledge related to risks was not sufficiently shared, a risk database could help to overcome this problem. The preliminary research, which consists of

interviewing 9 tender managers and risk managers, resulted in the following findings:

➢ The exchange of knowledge about risk within the organisation is insufficient;

➢ There is no evaluation about the risk register over the lifecycle of the project;

➢ A risk database could be a useful tool to store and maintain the risk knowledge;

➢ It is believed that by not sharing and retaining the acquired risk knowledge, many of the risks will not be identified which leads to budget and duration overruns in many projects.;

➢ The risk management process in the tender phase is not structured;

➢ The risk management process in the tender phase is incomplete;

➢ The risk management process in the tender phase is inefficient.

The preliminary research resulted in the following main research question of this master thesis: “What are the reasons for the unstructured, incomplete and inefficient risk management process, in the tender phase of Heijmans Infra, and how can these problems be overcome?”

The literature review resulted in the following process steps to come to complete and reliable risk management process in construction tendering:

➢ Risk management planning – deciding how to approach and plan the risk management activities for a project.

➢ Risk identification – determining which risks might affect the project and documenting their characteristics.

➢ Qualitative risk analysis – performing a qualitative analysis of risks and conditions to prioritize their effects on project objectives.

➢ Quantitative risk analysis – measuring the probability and consequences of risks and estimating their implications for project objectives.

➢ Risk response planning – developing procedures and techniques to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to the project’s objectives.

➢ Risk monitoring and control – monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, executing risk reduction plans, and evaluating their effectiveness throughout the project life cycle. The case study, followed by the interviews with the tender and project managers resulted in the following conclusions about why the current risk management process, in the tender phase at Heijmans Infra is unstructured, incomplete and inefficient.

➢ The most important conclusion came forward during the interviews with the tender and project managers. Al the projects analysed in the case study where adopted during the economic crisis. Heijmans needed projects to keep the personal working. This resulted in projects with risks that could not be controlled effectively and risks that would could cost a lot of money if the risks occurred.

➢ This first conclusion is also one of the reasons for the difference in the number of identified risks during the tender and construction phase. Risks where eliminated from the tender risk register to reduce the risk budget. But also, the risk identification process was unstructured and inefficient which led to an incomplete risk register. The standard risk register format used in the tender is inefficient to analyse the risks effectively.

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➢ From the analysis of the identified preventive and corrective control measures is concluded that the risk analysis was unstructured, because it resulted in risks with no control measures. This led to an incomplete risk register.

➢ The analysis showed that on average 50% of the risks in the tender phase was financially quantified.

➢ Based on the Risman scores it is concluded that 8% of the control measures don’t result in a reduction of the risk. From which can be concluded that the risk analysis is not effective on this point. However, this is open for discussion because the quantification is based on perception.

➢ The analysis of the top-10 financial budget overruns shows that the budget related to UTA cost, personnel and staff costs, is exceeded in all five projects and is the biggest overrun in three of the five projects. The project managers can explain this, because a delay in planning result in more labour, which affect the UTA costs directly.

➢ Risks related to the other aspects with budget overruns could be better controlled by more attention in the risk identification process, for example by the help of a risk register.

➢ The case studies showed that a quarter to half of the risks in the tender risk register is related to the top-10 financial budget overruns. This means that risks are missed in the identification process.

➢ The top-10 budget overruns related to the identified, and financially quantified, risks identified in the tender phase show that on average only 8% of the costs is taken in to account during the tender phase.

➢ The last conclusion, which is also a recommendation, is the fact that it is not possible to reflect objectively on the data from the risk register and the financial budget overruns. This is because the costs related to the specific risks are not recorded for every risk individually. To give a good reflection about the risk management process, including the financial

quantification, changed need to be made in the way the project controllers keep track of the project progress and risks.

The validated process plan risk management tender phase is developed based on the information from the literature review, the case study and the consecutive interviews. It describes the steps to come to a more structured, complete and reliable risk management process for the tender phase of construction projects at Heijmans Infra.

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